1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to composing pages in response to user requests. More specifically, it relates to dynamically composing pages in order to increase the overall value of the pages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pages on the Internet are typically statically composed. In many cases, a page is laid out by a web designer, loaded onto a web site, and then forgotten. Requests for the page can return the same page over and over again, even if more relevant information is available. Some web sites have dynamic feeds of content, in which content (or ads) are provided on a dynamic basis. For example, stock quotes can be continuously updated or a headline news article can be periodically changed. However, the layout of the overall page, including which components are on the page and the placement of those components (including the placement of the stock quote or ad) typically is static. There is no attempt to optimize the overall value of the page on an on-going basis.
From another point of view, many web sites are filled with information and links to other locations via ads and/or content links. The intent of each link is to provide the user with an option to take a click action to reach something of value to him. However, the user can only click once on any given page, regardless of how many links are available. Hence, in some sense, a page is more valuable if the most important links are the easiest to click on. Statically composed pages typically do not meet this criterion because they are static. What is important for one user may not be important for another, and what is important also changes over time.
In addition, the relevancy of different pages can change over time. For example, a sports site and a music site typically are not that related. As a result, statically composed sports pages and music pages typically would not have many links between them. However, the Dixie Chicks sang at Super Bowl 2003 and for a brief period of time they were covered by various sports sites. For many of these sports sites, there was not enough time to manually insert related links, for example to pages showing Dixie Chicks videos or other related music information. These links would have been both relevant and valuable during that period.
This capability is especially valuable to web sites that can provide a number of vertical properties. In the Super Bowl—Dixie Chicks example, a web site might offer both sports and music destinations. The integration of the two would have resulted in more value than the sum of the parts because of the synergy created during that period. More generally, large web sites, such as those with many vertical properties, can have access to a vast number of individual page components that can be assembled in many different combinations to compose web pages. Currently, the web pages are statically composed. It would be beneficial to dynamically compose web pages in order to increase the overall value of the web pages.